Scotland's fishing industry has been accused of exploiting and abusing migrant workers brought in to man boats because of a shortage of local crews.

A report from the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has highlighted alleged crimes against migrant workers, including exploitation, poor pay, abuse, intimidation and the use of violence, which it claims are widespread in the UK fishing industry.

According to the ITF, unscrupulous members of the UK fishing fleet are illegally using temporary transport visas to bring in Filipino crewmen for a fraction of the wages they would pay UK crews.

The visas are supposed to be for Filipino workers who plan to join ships heading for international waters, but boat owners are illegally using the workers to crew local boats for wages well below the legal national minimum.

'It's a serious problem resulting from the fact that it's possible to bring in these people under a transit visa without any protection or legal recourse,' said Norrie McVicar, UK inspector for the ITF.

'As well as low pay, there have been allegations of physical attacks on Filipino workers in Scotland and we've given reports to the Maritime Coastguard to follow up,' he said. 'We accept not all boat owners are bad but it's happening enough that we have to deal with it.'

The ITF report entitled 'Migrant Workers in the Scottish and Irish Fishing Industry' says it has been 'established in general that many of the migrant fishermen in Scotland are earning wages as low as £268 per month for working up to 208 hours, an hourly rate of £1.29'.

More than 1,000 Filipinos are estimated to be working in Scotland at the moment, with at least 200 in the Republic of Ireland, 160 in Northern Ireland and an unknown number in England.

'These guys come into the country on a transit visa to join a named vessel with the intention of sailing out of the UK, but instead they move onto a different vessel in the UK,' said Neil Keith, ITF inspector for Scotland and Northeast England.

'Recently I had one guy who was coming in to join a vessel in Oban but a taxi picked him up and took him to Fraserburgh, where he joined another boat. If something happens to him on the Fraserburgh boat and his family in the Philippines try to claim compensation, they might not get it because his visa was issued for the Oban vessel.'

The lack of provision of personal health and safety training for the migrant workers was highlighted in August, when three fishermen were killed on board a boat in Fraserburgh harbour.

Filipinos Ramilito Calipayan and Benjamin Potot, both 33, died along with Latvian Rimantis Venckus, aged 50, when fire engulfed the living quarters of the Banff registered Vision II. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but among the allegations in the ITF report is the claim that some boat owners shut down electrical generators in port to save fuel at night, effectively forcing their crew to use bottled gas in confined spaces for cooking and light.

The Scottish Fishermen's Federation chief executive, Bertie Armstrong defended the fishing fleet. 'We are drawing up a code of conduct for the social responsibility of employing Filipinos.'

He added: 'The picture painted is one of uniform bleakness but most Filipinos come back because they are happy with what happened last time.'